It’s no secret, the Senate is getting ready to follow the House’s lead and screw us on FISA, letting telecom criminals off the hook. We do have potential heroes — Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd are extremely pissed about all this — but their task will be greatly aided if their fellow Senators hear that there is tremendous public outcry over this. If you’re on our email list in one of the key states, you’ll be getting an email from us asking you to call your Senator and let them know you feel strongly about this (and if you’re not on our list and would like to receive these kinds of notifications, you can sign up here).

If you’re not on our list, and one of the following is your Senator, give them a call and speak up:

Stephanopoulos extracts a paean to Tim Russert from John Edwards, then launches into a substantive discussion of tax policy, taking up Edwards’ challenge to have more robust conversation about real issues that affect real people.

So, we have no progressive candidate. We have no Wellstone, no Feingold, no ideologically based movement person. My question is this: which of these candidates is more likely to reveal an inner Lieberman of some form once in power? I don’t have an answer. People can believe what they choose to believe, but both candidates have Liebermanish historical tendencies and both propel narratives reminiscent of Lieberman, the earlier years. The ultimate question I will have for supporters of either candidate during these days of pie fights will be, whoever gets power, what will you hold your winning candidate accountable for once in office, assuming s/he wins? If your winner gets some accountability fire from people who once supported your opponent, will you simply defend your winner, or will you join in for merited criticism?

The Constitution and the principle that no one is above the law suffered a numbing setback, Tuesday, when every Republican Senator, Joe Lieberman and 18 or so faux Democrats voted to gut the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, one of the most important bulwarks again tyrannical government since 1789. It was a stunning loss for America, which once prided itself on protecting individual liberties against an intrusive government.

The Senate is expected Friday to begin consideration of bills to amend FISA, after Congress gutted FISA last August. Final votes may not occur until Monday, but procedural votes today could influence whether the beating the Fourth Amendment took will be reversed and whether the telecoms get the immunity they and the Administration want to shield them for spying illegally on Americans.

While the Beltway media remain preoccupied with trivial, sometimes manufactured issues about Presidential records, drivers’ licenses, and kitchen metaphors, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Tuesday on whether to confirm an Attorney General nominee who won’t declare waterboarding is torture and thus illegal, but who may shield the Bush Administration from accountability for violating the Constitution and the rule of law.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating

– From Rudyard Kipling’s “If”

[Left, that's crime boss Randall L. Stephenson, CEO of AT&T]

Monday I shared a train ride with Jane. She was headed to New York to make an appearance on a panel at NYU, and I was headed to Philly on business.

We talked and worked, though Jane was hampered by the failure of her Verizon mobile wireless service to connect her online.

Not like A Series of Tubes.

Senator Stevens, it appears you have a problem.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – During a secret meeting to discuss what prosecutors say was a dirty deal to keep Alaska oil taxes low, two oil contractors said they had a powerful ally coming to town who could help build support for the plan:

(Today we welcome Sanford Horwitt, author of “Feingold:A New Democratic Party” Please join us in the comments)

Sanford Horwitt’s new biography of one our political heroes opens with quite a scene:

“Hillary Clinton was livid. Her face turned red and her angry words were aimed directly at Russ Feingold, the junior senator from Wisconsin.